Your ShelfYour Projects

The Message for This Time

6%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 4, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 27.

Read the full edition

The Message for This Time

By G. A. Irwin

G. A. IRWIN
IN the messages given by the apostle John to the seven churches, as recorded in the opening chapters of the book of Revelation, we have a condensed history of the church from its organization by the ordination of the twelve apostles until the end of probation and the return of our Lord to take his faithful ones home to glory. In each of the periods named in this history, a crisis confronted the church, and in each of them a separate and distinct promise was made to the church and the individual overcomer, any one of which would of itself be a sufficient stimulus to cause one to strive for the victory.
The foe in each instance has been the same; so if we can find out what caused individuals to triumph in the Ephesian age, we have the secret of success in each of the ages, the Laodicean, in which we live, included. The apostle John, through whom the Revelation was given, lived from the beginning to the close of the Ephesian age, and perhaps he, as no one else of his time, was acquainted with the bitter hatred manifested toward God's people by those in authority, in both church and state, and the influence and effect that the world in general had upon those endeavoring to live a Christian life.
Much of John's time in later life was spent in the city of Ephesus, whence he directed the churches in Asia Minor. Ephesus was the center of heathen worship, for the temple of Diana was located in that city. In looking through the epistles of John, written just prior to his banishment to the isle of Patmos, at a time when persecution was most severe, we find what is undoubtedly the secret of the overcoming life: "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." There is no other one thing pointed out in the Bible which will bring the overcomer's reward.
The faith that brings victory is the faith that centers in Jesus Christ, and brings justification to the repentant sinner. The note sounded by the apostle John in the time of crisis has been the key-note of victory in every age. "The just shall live by his faith" was the key-note of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and the message that broke the power of the Papacy and sent her into captivity.
Neither the Lord nor the Papacy has changed. The principle implanted in the minds of men by Satan in the beginning, that man can save himself by his own works, has been the foundation of all heathen religions, and is the principle of the Papacy still; and wherever and whenever it is held, men have no barrier against sin. Opposed to this principle and doctrine is the teaching of Paul, the great exponent of the glorious and victorious doctrine of justification by faith. "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God," was the message preached by the great apostle from the time of his conversion till the time of his departure in that gloomy dungeon in the city of Rome when he gave his dying testimony so full of sublime faith and courage: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing."
Justification by faith is a message from God; it bears the divine credentials, for its fruit is unto holiness. The thought that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, not because of any merit on our part but as a free gift from God, is a precious thought which comes to the burdened soul as water to the thirsty traveler.
It was the preaching of justification by faith that marked the beginning of the loud cry of the third angel's message, as evinced by the following statement found in the first-page article of the Review and Herald of Nov. 22, 1892:—
"The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth."
If the preaching of righteousness by faith as a special message in this denomination was the beginning of the loud cry, and of the "light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth," God evidently did not intend that this message should cease until the whole earth was lightened with the glory of the Lord.
That the message did not go as designed is evident from the following statements by the Lord's servant: "The churches are lukewarm. They have listened to doctrinal discourses, but they have not been instructed concerning the simple art of believing. . . . Shall we not give light to the souls that are groping in darkness? Shall we not seek to save them from perdition and build them up in the most holy faith, ever keeping before them the righteousness of Christ? . . . The doctrine of justification by faith has been lost sight of by many who have professed to believe the third angel's message."
The question will doubtless arise in the mind of the reader why a message of such vital importance to individuals, a message that was the beginning of the loud cry, should be lost sight of. The answer to this question is found in the following statement by the same writer: "The enemy of man and God is not willing that this truth should be clearly presented; for he knows that if the people receive it fully, his power will be broken. If he can control minds so that doubt and unbelief and darkness shall compose the experience of those who claim to be the children of God, he can overcome them with temptation."
When the message of justification by faith (which the servant of the Lord said "is the third angel's message in verity") began to be preached in this denomination, the enemy was deeply stirred, and made a strong effort to stop its spread. Failing in this, he changed his plan of opposition to a method that promised greater success. This plan was so to fasten the minds of the people upon the instruments that the Lord had called to promulgate the message, that these men would come to be regarded as the oracles of God, and the people's faith would become centered in them, rather than upon Jesus Christ, the author of the message. It was reckoned by the enemy that the praise and flattery of the people would so inflate these men that they would come to feel that their opinions and judgment must prevail in all matters pertaining both to the Scriptures and to the management of the Lord's work in the earth.
How well the enemy succeeded in this latter plan is well known to us as a people; but what we have lost by allowing him to succeed, only eternity will reveal. It is perfectly safe, however, to say that we are years behind where we might have been and ought to have been in the progress of this work. We are rapidly coming to the time when the miracle-working power of the arch-deceiver will be more decidedly revealed. Soon the powers of earth will seek not only to compel God's people to keep the first day of the week as the Sabbath, but will try to compel them to renounce their obedience to God's law by working on his holy day. This will be the time that will try men's souls; and when I read that only "those who are clothed with Christ's righteousness will in that day stand firm to truth and duty," and that "all those who have trusted in their own righteousness will be ranged under the black banner of the prince of darkness," I am persuaded that the time has fully come for the message of justification by faith to become again a prominent message in this denomination. The same faith that nerved Luther to stand alone so fearlessly against the combined power and influence of the Papacy, is needed now in the conflict with the combined powers of darkness. In this very connection, the spirit of prophecy has said, "If you would stand through the time of trouble, you must know Christ, and appropriate the gift of his righteousness which he imparts to the repentant sinner."
Loma Linda, Cal.